Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Rep. Andy Billig talks closing loopholes

Rep. Andy Billig sat down with TVW's Niki Reading today, to talk about the bill introduced by the 11 House freshman Democrats to close certain tax exemptions to fund smaller class sizes for Kindergarten-3rd grade classes. Here's an excerpt:

Billig: Banks have revenue from different sources. One of the sources is from mortgage interest. So when you pay your mortgage, part of what you’re paying is interest and that is revenue. So all businesses – I have a business, and I pay B&O tax on all of our income, and the banks don’t. They don’t pay B&O tax on the interest that they get on first mortgages. So this would basically cap that exemption so that they would be paying B&O tax just like any other business.

Q: And where would that money go?

Billig: It’s about $160 million would be generated and that would be enough to fund smaller class size – basically buy back smaller class sizes in K-3 across the state. And we know that class size matters, class size makes a difference.

HDC Flickr Gallery

About Us

House Democrats are working on issues that matter: creating good jobs and a competitive business climate, building strong schools, protecting the environment and making government more accountable and efficient.
Democracy works best when citizens are accurately informed and fully engaged. We hope this blog helps you learn more about what House Democrats are doing to build a better future for all of us who live, work, and do business in this state.